• Rezida Zakirova, Cain Polidano
• National Centre for Vocational Education Research

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03 February 2011Working in some capacity is almost considered de rigueur for tertiary students. The reasons for working and the impact this has on both an individual's ability to complete their studies and on their post-study labour market outcomes are only recently receiving attention.

Using the 1995 and 1998 cohorts of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY), this study investigates the motivations for and the education and employment outcomes from working while studying for both vocational education and training (VET) and higher education students. The authors find that income is an important motivating factor: those in receipt of income support are less likely to work while studying, although this is dependent on whether the student is still living at home.

Key messages

• For those studying full-time, working impacts on completion—the more hours worked, the greater the effect. For example, working 16–24 hours a week reduces the completion rate by eight percentage points, while more than 24 hours reduces it by 14 percentage points.
• Finding work in a job considered a 'career' job while studying has a significant and positive impact on course completion for both VET and higher education students.
• For all tertiary students, being employed in the final year of study improves the chances of finding full-time employment, even three years after completing the course.
• Interestingly, for both full- and part-time students, the longer they have been employed in a job, the greater the likelihood of course completion, while past work experience also increases the likelihood of completion for full-time students (2.5 percentage points per year of employment). Perhaps this reflects that these students have better time management skills.

Thus it is clear that combining study and work does have significant effects on completion and future employment prospects. Too much work negatively impacts on study completion, but on the other hand work experience does benefit future job prospects. The ideal combination would be modest hours of work in a job relevant to a future career—but this will be difficult to achieve for many students.